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A look behind the hijab

Amidst the commotion of dozens of women, Delaney Maclean picked out a taupe scarf to match the light aqua top that she was wearing.

One of the ladies from the Masjid Al-Noor Mosque in St. Catharines quickly helped her make it into a hijab.

The 15-year-old from Port Colborne was one of many people interested in finding out more at the World Hijab Day celebration.

“I came here with my grandma. She explained what it was and I thought it would be kind of neat for me to learn about it,” Maclean said.

“I think it’s incredible, I wish my friends could have experienced it. I don’t know anyone who wears a hijab.

“They explained you wear them every day, and you’re supposed to cover most of your head,” she said.

“The girl said she has over a hundred of them, and you match them with everything you wear.”

World Hijab Day started in the United States in 2013 and has grown to include more than a hundred countries.

Women at the St. Catharines mosque decided to take part to help explain some of the mystery behind the clothing item.

“It’s always mysterious to people when they look at someone wearing the hijab — why are they doing that or why are they covering up, they are so pretty they would look better without it on,” said Hanan Awadh from the mosque.

“To us it’s just a beautiful as someone doing up their hair, it’s their look for the day, she said.

“So I wake up and think, what am I wearing today.”

But Awadh added that the hijab is not just a headscarf.

“It’s the whole outfit; I have to be modest in my whole attire, how I treat others and how I speak to others. That all goes together with the hijab. So I can’t be wearing the hijab and have a negative attitude or be angry,” Awadh said.

“It is part of the faith, it is a requirement in the religion for women to cover up but, of course, it has to come from the female. A choice she makes once she reaches puberty, to take on that responsibility. Once you make the decision to wear the hijab you have to also follow the rules behind it.”

The devout Muslim said that she doesn’t wear the headcover for her husband or father, brother or male family members.

“I wear it for God because that is was he ordered.”

And she doesn’t feel that wearing the hijab stops her from anything.

“There are some obstacles like some sports, but I don’t think those things stop us,” she said. “I feel beautiful in it. And most of the ladies who wear it feel beautiful.”

She further explained that she doesn’t wear it all day as some might think.

“You wear the hijab once you leave your house in public, and if a person you could technically marry enters the home. Excluded are any women, your husband, your brother, but once some from outside of that close family space enters, then you would put it on. “

Awadh, who background is from East Africa, said that under Islam there is no ruling on what colour someone should wear or what material.

“Colours don’t signify anything. Whatever you prefer is what you put on.”

“There were some Christian nuns that wore head coverings — the same concept but different faiths,” Awadh said.

She said Indonesia and Malaysia would be the highest population countries where women wear it.

“(It’s) still somewhat foreign in North America, compared to Asian, African and Middle-Eastern countries. I believe that ladies in North America know the meaning of the hijab even more-so than women in the East.

“They wear it because they want to, nobody is forcing them, and they respect it enough to put it on every day.”